strictly enforced you must not suffer your great Master to be dishonoured nor his Religion dismembred by Sects or disgraced by impiety you must give no impunity to vitious persons and you must take care that no great example be greatly corrupted you must make better provisions for your poor than they did and take more care even of the external advantages of Christs Religion and his Ministers than they did of the Priests and Levites that is in all things you must be more zealous to promote the kingdom of Christ than they were for the Ministeries of Moses The sum of all is this The righteousness Evangelical is the same with that which the Ancients called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to live an Apostolical life that was the measure of Christians the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men that desired to please God that is as Apostolius most admirably describes it men who are curious of their very eyes temperate in their tongue of a mortified body and a humble spirit pure in their intentions masters of their passions Men who when they are injured return honourable words when they are lessened in their estates increase in their charity when they are abused they yet are courteous and give intreaties when they are hated they pay love men that are dull in contentions and quick in loving kindnesses swift as the feet of Asahel and ready as the chariots of Amminadib True Christians are such as are crucified with Christ and dead unto all sin and finally place their whole love on God and for his sake upon all mankind this is the description of a Christian and the true state of the righteousness Evangelical so that it was well said of Athenagoras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no Christian is a wicked man unless his life be a continual lie unless he be false to God and his Religion For the righteousness of the Gospel is in short nothing else but a transcript of the life of Christ de matthana nahaliel de nahaliel Bamoth said R. Joshua Christ is the image of God and every Christian is the image of Christ whose example is imitable but it is the best and his laws are the most perfect but the most easie and the promises by which he invites our greater services are most excellent but most true and the rewards shall be hereafter but they shall abide for ever and that I may take notice of the last words of my Text the threatnings to them that fall short of this righteousness are most terrible but most certainly shall come to pass they shall never enter into the kingdom of heaven that is their portion shall be shame and an eternal prison 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a flood of brimstone and a cohabitation with Devils to eternal ages and if this consideration will not prevail there is no place left for perswasion and there is no use of reason and the greatest hopes and the greatest fears can be no argument or sanction of laws and the greatest good in the world is not considerable and the greatest evil is not formidable but if they be there is no more to be said if you would have your portion with Christ you must be righteous by his measures and these are they that I have told you THE CHRISTIANS CONQUEST Over the Body of Sin Rom. VII 19. For the good that I would I do not but the evil which I would not that I do WHat the Eunuch said to Philip when he read the book of the Prophet Isaiah Of whom speaketh the Prophet this of himself or some other man The same question I am to ask concerning the words of my Text Does S. Paul mean this of himself or of some other It is hoped that he speaks it of himself and means that though his understanding is convinced that he ouâ—ht to serve God and â—hat he hath some imperfect desires to do so yet the Law of God without is opposed by a law of Sin witâ—in We have a corrupted nature and a body of infirmity and our reason dwells in the dark and we must go out of the world before we leave our sin For besides that some sins are esteemed brave and honourable and he is a baffled person that dares not kill his brother like a Gentleman our very Tables are made a snare and our civilities are direct treasons to the soul. You cannot entertain your friend but excess is the measure and that you may be very kind to your Guest you step aside and lay away the Christian your love cannot be expressed unless you do him an ill turn and civilly invite him to a Feaver Justice is too often taught to bow to great interests and men cannot live without flattery and there are some Trades that minister to sin so that without a sin we cannot maintain our Families and if you mean to live you must do as others do Now so long as men see they are like to be undone by innocence and that they can no way live but by compliance with the evil customs of the world men conclude practically because they must live they must sin they must live handsomely and therefore must do some things unhandsomely and so upon the whole matter sin is unavoidable Fain they would but cannot tell how to help it But since it is no better it is well it is no worse For it is S. Pauls case no worse man he would and he would not he did and he did not he was willing but he was not able and therefore the case is clear that if a man strives against sin and falls unwillingly it shall not be imputed to him he may be a regenerate man for all that A man must indeed wrangle against sin when it comes and like a peevish lover resist and consent at the same time and then all is well for this not only consists with but is a sign of the state of regeneration If this be true God will be very ill served If it be not true most men will have but small hopes of being saved because this is the condition of most men What then is to be done Truth can do us no hurt and therefore be willing to let this matter pass under examination for if it trouble us now it will bring comfort hereafter And therefore before I enter into the main inquiry I shall by describing the state of the man of whom S. Paul speaks here tell you plainly who it is that is in this state of sad things and then do ye make your resolutions according as you shall find it necessary for the saving of your souls which I am sure ought to be the end of all preaching 1. The man S. Paul speaks of is one that is dead v. 9. one that was deceived and slain v. 11. one in whom sin was exceeding sinful v. 13. that is highly imputed greatly malicious infinitely destructive he is one who is carnal and sold under sin v. 14. he is one that sins against
Bishop or Overseer of the Brotherhood the Ruler of the people the Shepherd of the Flock the Governour of the Church the Minister of Christ and the Priest of God These are great titles and yet less then what is said of them in Scripture which calls them Salt of the Earth Lights upon a candlestick Stars and Angels Fathers of our Faith Embassadors of God Dispensers of the Misteries of God the Apostles of the Churches and the Glory of Christ but then they are great burdens too for the Bishop is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intrusted with the Lords people that 's a great charge but there is a worse matter that follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Bishop is he of whom God will require an account for all their souls they are the words of S. Paul and transcribed into the 40th Canon of the Apostles and the 24th Canon of the Councel of Antioch And now I hope the envy is taken off for the honour does not pay for the burden and we can no sooner consider Episcopacy in its dignity as it is a Rule but the very nature of that Rule does imply so severe a duty that as the load of it is almost insufferable so the event of it is very formidable if we take not great care For this Stewardship is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Principality and a Ministry So it was in Christ he is Lord of all and yet he was the Servant of all so it was in the Apostles it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their lot was to be Apostles and yet to serve and minister and it is remarkable that in Isaiah the 70. use the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Bishop but there they use it for the Hebrew word nechosbeth which the Greeks usually render by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the interlineary translation by Exactores Bishops are only Gods Ministers and tribute gatherers requiring overseeing them that they do their duty and therefore here the case is so and the burden so great and the dignity so allayed that the envious man hath no reason to be troubled that his brother hath so great a load nor the proud man plainly to be delighted with so honourable a danger It is indeed a Rule but it is paternal it is a Government but it must be neither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is neither a power to constrain nor a commission to get wealth for it must be without necessity and not for filthy lucre sake but it is a Rule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so S. Luke as of him that ministers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so S. Mark as of him that is servant of all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so S. John such a principality as he hath that washes the feet of the weary traveller or if you please take it in the words of our Blessed Lord himself that He that will be chief among you let him be your Minister meaning that if under Christs Kingdom you desire rule possibly you may have it but all that rule under him are Servants to them that are ruled and therefore you get nothing by it but a great labour and a busy imployment a careful life and a necessity or making severe accounts But all this is nothing but the general measures I cannot be useful or understood unless I be more particular The particulars we shall best enumerate by recounting those great conjugations of worthy offices and actions by which Christian Bishops have blessed and built up Christendom for because we must be followers of them as they were of Christ the recounting what they did worthily in their generations will not only demonstrate how useful how profitable how necessary Episcopacy is to the Christian Church but it will at the same time teach us our duty by what services we are to benefit the Church in what works we are to be imployed and how to give an account of our Stewardship with joy 1. The Christian Church was founded by Bishops not only because the Apostles who were Bishops were the first Preachers of the Gospel and Planters of Churches but because the Apostolical men whom the Apostles used in planting and disseminating Religion were by all Antiquity affirmed to have been Diocesan Bishops in so much that as S. Epiphanius witnesses there were at the first disseminations of the faith of Christ many Churchâ—s who had in them no other Clergy but a Bishop and his Deacons and the Presbyters were brought in afterwards as the harvest grew greater But the Bishops names are known they are recorded in the book of Life and their praise is in the Gospel such were Timothy and Titus Clemens and Linus Marcus and Dionysius Onesimus and Caius Epaphroditus and S. James our Lords Brother Evodius and Simeon all which if there be any faith in Christians that gave their lives for a testimony to the faith and any truth in their stories and unless we who believe Thucydides and Plutarch Livy and Tacitus think that all Church story is a perpetual Romance and that all the brave men the Martyrs and the Doctors of the Primitive Church did conspire as one man to abuse all Christendom for ever I say unless all these impossible suppositions be admitted all these whom I have now reckoned were Bishops fixed in several Churches and had Dioceses for their Charges The consequent of this consideration is this It Bishops were those upon whose Ministry Christ founded and built his Church let us consider what great wisdom is required of them that seem to be Pillars the Stewards of Christs Family must be wise that Christ requires and if the order be necessary to the Church wisdom cannot but be necessary to the Order For it is a shame if they who by their Office are Fathers in Christ shall by their unskilfulness be but Babes themselves understanding not the secrets of Religion the mysteries of Godliness the perfections of the Evangelical law all the advantages and disadvantages in the Spiritual life A Bishop must be exercised in Godliness a man of great experience in the secret conduct of Souls not satisfied with an ordinary skill in making homilies to the people and speaking common exhortations in ordinary cases but ready to answer in all secret inquiries and able to convince the gainsayers and to speak wisdom amongst them that are perfect If the first Bishops laid the foundation their Successors must not only preserve whatsoever is fundamental but build up the Church in a most holy Faith taking care that no Heresie sap the foundation and that no hay or rotten wood be built upon it and above all things that a most Holy life be superstructed upon a holy and unreproveable Faith So the Apostles laid the foundation and built the walls of the Church and their Successors must raise up the roof as high as Heaven For let us talk and dispute eternally we shall never compose the controversies in Religion and
judge his people in Righteousness that their good things be not abolished and that their glory may endure for ever 4. All the offices Ecclesiastical alwayes were and ought to be conducted by the Episcopal order as is evident in the universal doctrine and practise of the primitive Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is the 40 th Canon of the Apostles Let the Presbyters and Deacons do nothing without leave of the Bishop But that case is known The consequent of this consideration is no other then the admonition in my text We are Stewards of the manifold Grace of God and dispensers of the mysteries of the Kingdom and it is required of Stewards that they be found faithful that we preach the word of God in season and out of season that we rebuke and exhort admonish and correct for these God calls Pastores secundùm cor meum Pastors according to his own heart which feed the people with knowledge and understanding but they must also comfort the afflicted and bind up the broken heart minister the Sacraments with great diligence and righteous measures and abundant charity alwayes having in mind those passionate words of Christ to S. Peter If thou lovest me feed my sheep If thou hast any love to me feed my lambs And let us remember this also that nothing can enforce the people to obey their Bishops as they ought but our doing that duty and charity to them which God requires There is reason in these words of S. Chrysostom It is necessary that the Church should adhere to their Bishop as the body to the head as plants to their roots as rivers to their springs as children to their Fathers as Disciples to their Masters These similitudes express not only the relation and dependency but they tell us the reason of the duty The head gives light and reason to conduct the body the roots give nourishment to the plants and the springs perpetual emanation of waters to the chanels Fathers teach and feed their children and Disciples receive wise instruction from their Masters and if we be all this to the people they will be all that to us and wisdom will compel them to submit and our humility will teach them obedience and our charity will invite their compliance Our good example will provoke them to good works and our meekness will melt them into softness and flexibility For all the Lords people are populus voluntarius a free and willing people and we who cannot compel their bodies must thus constrain their souls by inviting their wills by convincing their understandings by the beauty of fair example the efficacy and holiness and the demonstrations of the spirit This is experimentum ejus qui in nobis loquitur Christus The experiment of Christ that speaketh in us For to this purpose those are excellent words which S. Paul spake Remember them who have the rule over you whose faith follow considering the end of their conversation There lyes the demonstration and those prelates who teach good life whose Sermons are the measures of Christ and whose life is a copy of their Sermons these must be followed and surely these will for these are burning and shining lights but if we hold forth false fires and by the amusement of evil examples call the vessels that sail upon a dangerous sea to come upon a rock or an iron shoar instead of a safe harbour we cause them to make shipwrack of their precious Faith and to perish in the deceitful and unstable waters Vox operum fortiùs sonat quà m verborum A good life is the strongest argument that your faith is good and a gentle voice will be sooner entertained then a voice of thunder but the greatest eloquence in the world is a meek spirit and a liberal hand these are the two pastoral staves the Prophet speaks of nognam hovelim beauty and bands he that hath the staff of the beauty of holiness the ornament of fair example he hath also the staff of bands atque in funiculis Adam trahet eos in vinculis chaâ—itatis as the Prophet Hosea's expression is he shall draw the people after him by the cords of a man by the bands of a holy charity But if against all these demonstrations any man will be refractary We have instead of a staff an Apostolical rod which is the last and latest remedy and either brings to repentance or consigns to ruin and reprobation If there were any time remaining I could reckon that the Episcopal order is the principle of Unity in the Church and we see it is so by the inumerable Sects that sprang up when Episcopacy was persecuted I could adde how that Bishops were the cause that S. John wrote his Gospel that the Christian Faith was for 300. years together bravely defended by the sufferings the prisons and flames the life and the death of Bishops as the principal Combatants That the Fathers of the Church whose writings are held in so great veneration in all the Christian World were almost all of them Bishops I could adde that the Reformation of Religion in England was principally by the Preachings and the disputings the writings and the Martyrdom of Bishops That Bishops have ever since been the greatest defensatives against Popery That England and Ireland were governed by Bishops ever since they were Christian and under their conduct have for so many ages enjoyed all the blessings of the Gospel I could add also that Episcopacy is the great stabiliment of Monarchy but of this we are convinced by a sad and too dear bought experience I could therefore in stead of it say that Episcopacy is the great ornament of Religion that as it rescues the Clergy from contempt so it is the greatest preservâ—tive of the peoples liberty from Ecclesiastick Tyranny on one hand the Gentry being little better then servants while they live under the Presbytery and Anarchy and licentiousness on the other That it endears obedience and is subject to the Laws of Princes And is wholly ordained for the good of mankind and the benefit of Souls But I cannot stay to number all the blessings which have entered into the World at this door I only remark these because they describe unto us the Bishops imployment which is to be busy in the service of Souls to do good in all capacities to serve every mans need to promote all publick benefits to cement Governments to establish peace to propagate the Kingdom of Christ to do hurt to no man to do good to every man that is so to minister that Religion and Charity publick peace and private blessings may be in their exaltation As long as it was thus done by the Primitive Bishops the Princes and the people gave them all honour Insomuch that by a decree of Constantine the great the Bishop had power given him to retract the sentences made by the Presidents of Provinces and we find in the acts of S. Nicholas that he
insinuating it self into the most dull and unactive Element produces Gold and Pearls Life and motion and brisk activities in all things that can receive the influence and heavenly blessing so it is in the Holy Spirit of God and the word of God and the grace of God which S. John calls the seed of God it is a law of righteousness and it is a law of the Spirit of Life and changes nature into Grace and dulness into zeal and fear into love and sinful habits into innocence and passes on from grace to grace till we arrive at the full measures of the stature of Christ and into the perfect liberty of the sons of God so that we shall no more say The evil that I would not that I do but we shall hate what God hates and the evil that is forbidden we shall not do not because we are strong of our selves but because Christ is our strength and he is in us and Christs strength shall be perfected in our weakness and his grace will be sufficient for us and he will of his own good pleasure work in us not only to will but also to do velle perficere saith the Apostle to will and to do it throughly and fully being sanctified throughout to the glory of his Holy name and the eternal salvation of our Souls through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom with the Father c. FIDES FORMATA OR Faith working by Love James II. 24. You see then how that by works a Man is justified and not by Faith only THat we are justified by Faith S. Paul tells us that we are also justified by works we are told in my Text and both may be true But that this justification is wrought by Faith without works to him that worketh not but believeth saith S. Paul that this is not wrought without works S. James is as express for his negative as S. Paul was for his affirmative and how both these should be true is something harder to unriddle But affirmanti incumbit probatio he that affirms must prove and therefore S. Paul proves his Doctrine by the example of Abraham to whom faith was imputed for righteousness and therefore not by works And what can be answered to this Nothing but this that S. James uses the very same argument to prove that our justification is by works also For our Father Abraham was justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac Now which of these sayes true Certainly both of them but neither of them have been well understood insomuch that they have not only made divisions of heart among the faithful but one party relies on faith to the disparagement of good life and the other makes works to be the main ground of our hope and confidence and consequently to exclude the efficacy of faith The one makes Christian Religion a lazy and unactive institution and the other a bold presumption on our selves while the first tempts us to live like Heathens and the other recals us to live the life of Jews while one sayes I am of Paul and another I am of S. James and both of them put it in danger of evacuating the institution and the death of Christ one looking on Christ only as a law-giver and the other only as a Saviour The effects of these are very sad and by all means to be diverted by all the wise considerations of the Spirit My purpose is not with subtile arts to reconcile them that never disagreed the two Apostles spake by the same Spirit and to the same last design though to differing intermedial purposes but because the great end of Faith the design the definition the State the Oeconomy of it is that all believers should not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit before I fall to the close handling of the Text I shall premise some preliminary considerations to prepare the way of holiness to explicate the differing senses of the Apostles to understand the question and the duty by removing the causes of the vulgar mistakes of most men in this Article and then proceed to the main inquiry 1. That no man may abuse himself or others by mistaking of hard words spoken in mystery with allegorical expressions to secret senses wrapt up in a cloud such as are Faith and Justification and Imputation and Righâ—eousness and Works be pleased to consider that the very word Faith is in Scripture infinitely ambiguous in so much that in the Latin Concordances of S. Hieroms Bible published by Robert Stephens you may see no less than twenty two several senses and acceptations of the word Faith set down with the several places of Scripture referring to them To which if out of my own observation I could add no more yet these are an abundant demonstration that whatsoever is said of the efficacy of Faith for Justification is not to be taken in such a sense as will weaken the necessity and our carefulness of good life when the word may in so many other senses be taken to verifie the affirmation of S. Paul of Justification by Faith so as to reconcile it to the necessity of Obedience 2. As it is in the word Faith so it is in works for by works is meant sometimes the thing done sometimes the labour of doing sometimes the good will it is sometimes taken for a state of good life sometimes for the Covenant of works it sometimes means the works of the Law sometimes the works of the Gospel sometimes it is taken for a perfect actual unsinning obedience sometimes for a sincere endeavour to please God sometimes they are meant to be such which can challenge the reward as of Debt sometimes they mean only a disposition of the person to recieve the favour and the grace of God Now since our good works can be but of one kind for ours cannot be meritorious ours cannot be without sin all our life they cannot be such as to need no repentance it is no wonder if we must be justified without works in this sense for by such works no man living can be justified And these S. Paul calls the works of the Law and sometimes he calls them our righteousness and these are the Covenant of works But because we came into the world to serve God and God will be obeyed and Jesus Christ came into the world to save us from sin and to redeem to himself a people zealous of good works and hath to this purpose revealed to us all his Fathers will and destroyed the works of the Devil and gives us his holy Spirit and by him we shall be justified in this obedience therefore when works signifie a sincere hearty endeavour to keep all Gods commands out of a belief in Christ that if we endeavour to do so we shall be helped by his grace and if we really do so we shall be pardoned for what is past and if we continue to do so we shall receive a Crown of Glory therefore
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are in themselves ungodliness and will produce more they will encrease unto more ungodliness But the faith of a Christian had other measures that was faith then which made men faithful to their vows in Baptism The faith of a Christian was the best security in contracts and a Christians word was as good as his bond because he was faithful that promised and a Christian would rather dy then break his word and was alwayes true to his trust he was faithful to his Friend and loved as Jonathan did David This was the Christian Faith then their religion was to hurt no man and to do good to every man and so it ought to be True Religion is to visit the Fatherless and Widow and to keep our selves unspotted of the World That 's a good religion that 's pure and undefiled so S. James and S. Chrysostom defines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 true religion to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a pure faith and a godly life for they make up the whole mystery of godâ—iness and no man could then pretend to Faith but he that did do valiantly and suffer patiently and resist the Devil and overcome the world These things are as prâ—perly the actions of Faith as alms is of Charity and therefore they must enter into the moral definition of it And this was truly understood by Salvian that wiâ—e and godly Priest of Massilia what is Faith and what is believing saith he hominem fideliter Christo credere est fidelâ—m Deo esse h. e. fideliter Dei mandata servare That man does faithfully believe in Christ who is faithful unto God who faithfully keeps Gods commandments and therefore let us measure our Faith here by our faithfulness to God and by our diligence to do our Masters Commandments For Christianorum omnis religio sine scelere mâ—culâ vivere said Lactantius The whole religion of a Christian is to live unblameably that is in all holiness and purity of conversation 2. When our faith is spoken of as the great instrument of justification and salvation take Abraham's faith as your best pattern and that wâ—ll end the dispute because that he was justified by Faith when his faith was mighty in effect when he trusted in God when he believed the promises when he expected a resurrection of the dead when he was strong in Faith when he gave glory to God when against hope he believed in hope and when all this past into an act of a most glorious obedience even denying his greatest desires contradicting his most passionate affections offering to God the best thing he had and exposing to death his beloved Isaac his laughters all his joy at the command of God By this faith he was justified saith S. Paul by these works he was justified saith S. James that is by this faith working this obedience And then all the difficulty is over only remember this your faith is weak and will do but little for you if it be not stronger then all your secular desires and all your peevish angers Thus we find in the holy Gospels this conjunction declared necessary Whatsoever things ye desire when ye pray believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them Here is as glorious an event promised to Faith as can be expressed Faith shall obtain any thing of God True but it is not Faith alone but faith in prayer faith praying not faith simply believing So S. James the prayer of Faith shall save the sick but adds it must be the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man so that faith shall prevail but there must be prayer in faith and servour in prayer and devotion in fervour and righteousness in devotion and then impute the effect to faith if you please provided that it be declared that effect cannot be wrought by Faith unless it be so qualified But Christ adds one thing more When ye stand praying forgive but if ye will not forgive neither will your Father forgive you So that it will be to no purpose to say a man is justified by faith unless you mingle charity with it for without the charity of forgiveness there can be no pardon and then justification is but a word when it effects nothing 3. Let every one take heed that by an importune adhering to and relying upon a mistaken Faith he do not really make a shipwrack of a right Faith Hymenaeus Alexander lost their faith by putting away a good conscience and what matter is it of what religion or faith a man be of if he be a Villain and a cheat a man of no truth and of no trust a lover of the World and not a lover of God But I pray consider can any man have faith that denyes God That 's not possible and cannot a man as well deny God by an evil action as by an heritical Proposition Cannot a man deny God by works as much as by words Hear what the Apostle sayes They profess that they know God but in works they deny him being abominable and disobedient and unto every good work reprobate Disobedience is a denying God Nolumus hunc regnare is as plain a renouncing of Christ as nolumus huic credere It is to no purpose to say we believe in Christ and have faith unless Christ reign in our hearts by faith 4. From these premises we may see but too evidently that though a great part of mankind pretend to be saved by Faith yet they know not what it is or else wilfully mistake it and place their hopes upon sand or the more unstable water Believing is the least thing in a justifying faith For faith is a conjugation of many Ingredients and faith is a Covenant and faith is a law and faith is obedience and faith is a work and indeed it is a sincere cleaving to and closing with the terms of the Gospel in every instance in every particular Alas the niceties of a spruce understanding and the curious nothings of useless speculation and all the opinions of men that make the divisions of heart and do nothing else cannot bring us one drop of comfort in the day of tribulation and therefore are no parts of the strength of faith Nay when a man begins truly to fear God and is in the Agonies of mortification all these new-nothings and curiosities will neglected by as baubles do by children when they are deadly sick But that only is faith that makes us to love God to do his will to suffer his impositions to trust his promises to see through a cloud to overcome the World to resist the Devil to stand in the day of tryal and to be comforted in all our sorrows This is that precious faith so mainly necessary to be insisted on that by it we may be Sons of the free woman liberi à vitiis ac ritibus that the true Isaac may be in us which is Christ according to the Spirit the wisdom and power of
God a Divine vigour and life whereby we are enabled with joy and cheerfulness to walk in the way of God By this you may try your faith if you please and make an end of this question Do you believe in the Lord Jesus yea or no God forbid else but if your Faith be good it will abide the trial There are but three things that make the integrity of Christian faith believing the words of God confidence in his goodness and keeping his commandments For the first it is evident that every man pretâ—nds to it if he calls himself Christian he believes all that is in the Canon of the Scriptures and if he did not he were indeed no Christian. But now consider what think we of this Proposition All shall be damned who believe not the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousness Does not every man believe this Is it possible they can believe there is any such thing as unrighteousness in the World or any such thing as damnation and yet commit that which the Scriptures call unrighteousness and which all laws and all good men say is so Consider how many unrighteous men there are in the world and yet how few of them think they shall be damned I know not how it comes to pass but men go upon strange principles and they have made Christianity to be a very odd Institution if it had not better measures than they are pleased to afford it There are two great roots of all evil Covetousness and Pride and they have infected the greatest parts of mankind and yet no man thinks himself to be either covetous or proud And therefore whatever you discourse against these sins it never hits any man but like Jonathans arrows to David they fall short or they fly beyond Salvian complained of it in his time Hoc ad crimina nostra addimus ut cum in omnibus rei simus etiam bonos nos sanctos esse credamus This we add unto our crimes we are the vilest persons in the world and yet we think our selves to be good people and when we dy make no question but we shall go to Heaven There is no cause of this but because we have not so much Faith as believing comes to and yet most men will pretend not only to believe but to love Christ all this while And how do they prove this Truly they hate the memory of Judas and curse the Jews that crucified Christ and think Pilate a very miserable man and that all the Turks are damned and to be called Cajaphas is a word of reproach and indeed there are many that do not much more for Christ than this comes to things to as little purpose and of as little signification But so the Jews did hate the memory of Corah as we do of Caiphas and they builded the Sepulchres of the Prophets and we also are angry at them that killed the Apostles and the Martyrs But in the mean time we neither love Christ nor his Saints for we neither obey him nor imitate them And yet we should think our selves highly injured if one should call us Infidels and haters of Christ. But I pray consider what is hating of any man but designing and doing him all the injury and spite we can Does not he hate Christ that dishonours him that makes Christs members the members of an harlot That doth not feed clothe these members If the Jews did hate Christ when they crucified him then so does a Christian too when he crucifies him again Let us not deceive our selves a Christian may be damned as well as a Turk and Christians may with as much malice crucifie Christ as the Jews did And so does every man that sins wilfully he spills the blood of Christ making it to be spent in vain He that hateth you hateth me he that receives you receives me said Christ to his Apostles I wish the world had so much faith as to believe that and by this try whether we love Christ and believe in him or no I shall for the tryal of our Faith ask one easy question Do we believe that the story of David and Jonathan is true Have we so much faith as to think it possible that two Rivals of a Crown should love so dearly Can any man believe this and not be infinitely ashamed to see Christians almost all Christians to be irreconcileably angry and ready to pull their brothers heart out when he offers to take our Land or money from us Why do almost all men that go to law for right hate one anothers persons Why cannot men with patience hear their titles questioned But if Christianity be so excellent a Religion why are so very many Christians so very wicked Certainly they do not so much as believe the propositions and principles of their own Religion For the body of Christians is so universally wicked that it would be a greater change to see Christians generally live according to their profession than it was at first from infidelity to see them to turn Believers The conversion from Christian to Christian from Christian in title to Christian in sincerity would be a greater miracle then it was when they were converted from Heathen and Jew to Christian. What is the matter Is not repentance from dead works reckoned by S. Paul in the 6. Hebr. as one of the fundamental points of Christian Religion Is it not a piece of our Catechism the first thing we are taught and is it not the last thing that we practise We had better be without Baptism than without repentance and yet both are necessary and therefore if we were not without faith we should be without neither Is not Repentance a forsaking all sin and an intire returning unto God Who can deny this And is it not plainly said in Scripture Vnless ye repent ye shall all perish But shew me the man that believes these things heartily that is shew me a true penitent he only believes the doctrines of repentance If I had time I should examine your faith by your confidence in God and by your obedience But if we fall in the meer believing it is not likely we should do better in the other But because all the promises of God are conditional and there can be no confidence in the particular without a promise or revelation it is not possible that any man that does not live well should reasonably put his trust in God To live a wicked life and then to be confident that in the day of our death God will give us pardon is not faith but a direct want of faith If we did believe the promises upon their proper conditions or believe that Gods commandments were righteous and true or that the threatnings were as really intended as they are terribly spoken we should not dare to live at the rate we do But wicked men have not faith saith S. Paul and then the wonder ceases But there are such palpable contradictions between mens practices
Duty but this also God will exact at the hands of every man that is placed under Authority I have now told you the summe of what I had to say concerning Obedience to Laws and to your own Government and it will be to little purpose to make laws in matter of Religion or in any thing else if the end of it be that every man shall chuse whether he will obey or no and if it be questioned whether you be deceiv'd or no though the suffering such a question is a great diminution to your authority yet it is infinitely more probable that you are in the right then that the disobedient Subject is because you are conducted with a publick spirit you have a special title and peculiar portions of the promise of God's assistance you have all the helps of Counsel and the advantages of deliberation you have the Scriptures and the Laws you are as much concerned to judge according to truth as any man you have the principal of all capacities and states of men to assist your consultations you are the most concern'd for Peace and to please God also is your biggest interest and therefore it cannot be denied to be the most reasonable thing in the world which is set down in the Law Praesumptio est pro authoritate imponentis the presumption of truth ought to be on your side and since this is the most likely way for Truth and the most certain way for Peace you are to insist in this and it is not possible to find a better I have another part or sense of my Text yet to handle but because I have no more time of mine own and I will not take any of yours I shall only doe it in a short Exhortation to this most Honourable Auditory and so conclude God hath put a Royal Mantle and fastned it with a Golden Clasp upon the shoulder of the KING and he hath given you the Judges Robe the King holds the Scepter and he hath now permitted you to touch the golden Ball and to take it a while into your handling and made obedience to your Laws to be Duty and Religion but then remember that the first in every kind is to be the measure of the Subjects should obey you unless you obey God I do not speak this only in relation to your personal duty though in that also it would be consider'd that all the Bishops and Ministers of Religion are bound to teach the same Doctrines by their Lives as they do by their Sermons and what we are to doe in the matters of Doctrine you are also to doe in matter of Laws what is reasonable for the advantages of Religion is also the best Method for the advantages of Government we must preach by our good Example and you must govern by it and your good example in observing the laws of Religion will strangely endear them to the affections of the people But I shall rather speak to you as you are in a capacity of union and of Government for as now you have a new Power so there is incumbent upon you a special Duty 1. Take care that all your power and your counsels be imploy'd in doing honour and advantages to Piety and Holiness Then you obey God in your publick capacity when by holy Laws and wise administrations you take care that all the Land be an obedient and a religious People For then you are princely Rulers indeed when you take care of the Salvation of a whole Nation Nihil aliud est imperium nisi cura salutis alinae said Ammianus Government is nothing but a care that all men be saved And therefore take care that men do not destroy their Souls by the abominations of an evil life see that God be obey'd take care that the breach of the laws of God may not be unpunished The best way to make men to be good Subjects to the King is to make them good servants of God Suffer not Drunkenness to pass with impunity let Lust find a publick shame Let the sonnes of the Nobility and Gentry no more dare to dishonour God then the meanest of the people shall let baseness be basely esteemed that is put such characters of Shame upon dishonourable Crimes that it be esteem'd more against the honour of a Gentleman to be drunk then to be kicked more shame to fornicate then to be can'd and for honours sake and the reputation of Christianity take some course that the most unworthy sins of the world have not reputation added to them by being the practice of Gentlemen and persons of good birth and fortunes Let not them who should be examples of Holiness have an impunity and a licence to provoke God to anger lest it be said that in Ireland it is not lawful for any man to sin unless he be a person of quality Optimus est reipublicae status ubi nihil deest nisilicentia pereundi In a common-wealth that 's the best state of things where every thing can be had but a leave to sin a licence to be undone 2. As God is thus to be obey'd and you are to take care that he be so God also must be honnourd by paying that reverence and religious obedience which is due to those persons whom he hath been pleased to honour by admitting them to the dispensation of his blessings and the ministeries of your Religion For certain it is this is a right way of giving honour and obedience to God The Church is in some very peculiar manner the portion and the called and the care of God and it will concern you in pursuance of your obedience to God to take care that they in whose hands Religion is to be ministred and conducted be not discouraged For what your Judges are to the ministry of Laws that your Bishops are in the ministeries of Religion and it concerns you that the hands of neither of them be made weak and so long as you make Religion your care and Holiness your measure you will not think that Authority is the more to be despised because it is in the hands of the Church or that it is a sin to speak evil of dignities unless they be Ecclesiastical but that they may be reviled and that though nothing is baser then for a man to be a Thief yet Sacrilege is no dishonour and indeed to be an Oppressor is a great and crying sin yet to oppress the Church to diminish her rents to make her beggerly and contemptible that 's no offence and that though it is not lawful to despise Government yet if it be Church-government that then the case is altered Take heed of that for then God is dishonoured when any thing is the more despised by how much it relates nearer unto God No Religion ever did despise their chiefest Ministers and the Christian Religion gives them the greatest honour For honourable Priesthood is like a shower from heaven it causes blessings every where but a pitiful a
imperio gemimus cum funus adultae Virginis occurrit vel terrâ clauditur infans Et minor igne rogi If you do but see a Maiden carried to her grave a little before her intended marriage or an Infant dye before the birth of Reason Nature hath taught us to pay a tributary tear Alas your eyes will behold the ruine of many Families wnich though they sadly have deserved yet Mercy is not delighted with the spectacle and therefore God places a watry cloud in the eye that when the light of heaven shines upon it it may produce a rain-bow to be a Sacrament and a memorial that God and the sons of God do not love to see a man perish God never rejoyces in the death of him that dies and we also esteem it undecent to have Musick at a Funeral And as Religion teaches us to pity a condemned Criminal so Mercy intercedes for the most benign interpretation of the Laws You must indeed be as just as the Laws and you must be as merciful as your Religion and you have no way to tye these together but to follow the pattern in the Mount doe as God does who in judgement remembers mercy To conclude If every one in this Honourable Assembly would joyn together to promote Christian Religion in it's true notion that is Peace and Holiness the Love of God and the Love of our Brother Christianity in all its proper usefulness and would not indure in the Nation any thing against the laws of the Holy Jesus if they were all zealous for the doctrines of Righteousness and impatient of Sin in your selves and in the people it is not to be imagined what a happy Nation we should be But if ye divide into parties and keep up useless differences of names or interests if ye do not joyn in the bands of Peace that is the King and the Church Religion and the good of the Nation you can never hope to see a blessing to be the end of your labours Remember the words of Solomon Righteousness exalteth a Nation but sin is a reproach to any people but when Righteousness is advanced in the hearts and lives of the Nation who shall dare to reprove your Faith who can find fault with your Religion God of his mercy grant that in all your Consultations the Word of God may be your measure the Spirit of God may be your guide and the glory of God may be your end He of his mercy grant that Moderation may be your limit and Peace may be within your walls as long as you are there and in all the Land for ever after But remember that since the honour and service of his Majesty and the peace and prosperity of the Church the perpetuity of our fundamental Laws publick Justice and the honour of all legal Authority the advancement of Trade and the wealth of the Nation is your design remember I pray what warranty you have to expect all this no less then the words of our Blessed Saviour but it is upon these terms Seek ye first the Kingdome of God and the righteousness thereof and all these things shall be added to you Amen FINIS A CATALOGUE of some Books written by JEREMY Lord Bishop of Down and Connor and Printed for R. Royston at the Angel in Ivy-lane London 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Course of Sermons for all the Sundaies of the year together with a discourse of the Divine Institution Necessity Sacredness and Separation of the Office Ministerial in fol. 2. The History of the Life and Death of the Ever-blessed Jesus Christ the third Edition in fol. 3. The Rule and Exercises of holy living in 12. 4. The Rule and Exercises of holy dying in 12. 5. The Golden Grove or A Manual of daily Prayers fitted to the daies of the week together with a short Method of Peace and Holiness in 12. 6. A Collection of Polemical and Moral discourses in fol. newly reprinted 7. A Discourse of the Nature Offices and Measure of Friendship in 12. new 8. A Collection of Offices or forms of Prayer fitted to the needs of all Christians taken out of the Scriptures and Ancient Liturgies of several Churches especially the Greek together with the Psalter or Psalms of David after the Kings Translation in a large octavo newly published 9. Ductor Dubitantium or the Rule of Conscience fol. in two volumes 10. The doctrine and Practice of Repentance describing the necessities of a Strict a Holy and a Christian Life serving as a necessary Supplement unto the Rule of Conscience 11. The Worthy Communicant in octavo sold at the Bell in S. Pauls Churchyard Via Intelligentiae A SERMOM Preached to the UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN Shewing by what means the Scholars shall become most Learned and most Usefull Published at their desire By the R. R. Father in God JEREMY Lord Bishop of Downe c. and Vicechancellour of that UNIVERSITY Ad majorem Dei gloriam LONDON Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to the Kings most Excellent Majesty 1662. TO THE READER PEACE is so great a Blessing and Disputations and Questions in Religion are so little friends to Peace that I have thought no mans time can be better spent then in propositions and promotions of Peace and consequently in finding expedients and putting periods to all contentious Learning I have already in a discourse before the Right Honourable the Lords and Commons assembled in this Parliament prov'd that Obedience is the best medium of Peace and true Religion and Lawes are the only common term and certain rule and measure of it Vocatâ ad concionem multitudine quae coalescere in populum Unius corporis nullâ re praeterquam legibus poterat said Livy Obedience to Man is the externall instrument and the best in the World To which I now add that Obedience to God is the best internall instrument and I have prov'd it in this discourse Peace and Holiness are twin-Sisters after which because every man is bound to follow and he that does not shall never see God I concluded that the office of a Bishop is in nothing so signally to be exhibited as in declaring by what means these great duties and blessings are to be acquir'd This way I have here describ'd is an old way for it was Christs way and therefore it is truth and life but it hath been so little regarded and so seldom taught that when I first spake my thoughts of it in the following words before the Little but Excellent University of Dublin they consented to it so perfectly and so piously entertain'd it that they were pleas'd with some earnestness to desire me to publish it to the World and to consigne it to them as a perpetual memorial of their duty and of my regards to them and care over them in my Station I was very desirous to serve and please them in all their worthy desires but had found so much reason to distrust my own abilities that I could not resolve to do
agreement such a Gate might be deliver'd to him The messenger was not advis'd to be cautious not at all instructed in the art of Secrecy for it was intended that he should be search'd intercepâ—ed and hang'd for ought they car'd but the Arrow was shot against the Bishop that he might be accused for base Conspiracy and die with shame and sad dishonour But here God manifested his mighty care of his Servants he was pleas'd to send into the heart of the messenger such an affrightment that he directly ran away with the Letter and never durst come near the Town to deliver it This story was publish'd by Sir Phelim himself who added That if he could have thus ensnar'd the Bishop he had good assurance the Town should have been his own Sed bonitas Dei praevalitura est super omnem malitiam hominis The goodness of God is greater then all the malice of Men and nothing could so prove how dear that sacred Life was to God as his rescue from the dangers Stantia non poterant tecta probare Deos To have kept him in a warm house had been nothing unless the roof had fallen upon his head that rescue was a remark of Divine favour and Providence But it seems Sir Phelim's Treason against the Life of this worthy Man had a Correspondent in the Town and it broke out speedily for what they could not effect by malicious stratagem they did in part by open force they turn'd the Bishop out of the Town and upon trifling and unjust pretences search'd his Carriages and took what they pleas'd till they were asham'd to take more they did worse then divorce him from his Church for in all the Roman Divorces they said Tuas tibi res habeto Take your goods and be gone but Plunder was Religion then However though the usage was sad yet it was recompenc'd to him by his taking Sanctuary in Oxford where he was graciously receiv'd by that most incomparable and divine Prince but having served the King in Yorkshire by his Pen and by his Counsels and by his Interests return'd back to Ireland where under the excellent conduct of his Grace the now Lord Lieutenant he ran the risque and fortune of oppressed Vertue But God having still resolv'd to afflict us the good man was forc'd into the fortune of the Patriarchs to leave his Countrey and his Charges and seek for safety and bread in a strange Land for so the Prophets were us'd to do wandring up and down in sheeps-clothing but poor as they were the world was not worthy of them and this worthy man despising the shame took up his Cross and followed his Master Exilium causa ipsa jubet sibi dulce videri Et desiderium dulce levat patriae He was not asham'd to suffer where the Cause was honourable and glorious but so God provided for the needs of his banished and sent a man who could minister comfort to the afflicted and courage to the persecuted and resolutions to the tempted and strength to that Religion for which they all suffered And here this great man was indeed triumphant this was one of the last and best scenes of his life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The last dayes are the best witnesses of a man But so it was that he stood up in publick and brave defence for the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England First by his Sufferings and great Example for Verbis tantùm philosophari non est Doctoris sed Histrionis To talk well and not to do bravely is for a Comedian not a Divine But this great man did both he suffered his own Calamity with great courage and by his wise Discourses strengthened the hearts of others For there wanted not diligent Tempters in the Church of Rome who taking advantage of the Afflictions of His Sacred Majesty in which state Men commonly suspect every thing and like men in sickness are willing to change from side to side hoping for ease and finding none flew at Royal Game and hop'd to draw away the King from that Religion which His most Royal Father the best Man and the wisest Prince in the world had seal'd with the best Bloud in Christendom and which Himself suck'd in with His Education and had confirm'd by Choice and Reason and confess'd publickly and bravely and hath since restor'd prosperously Mâ—llitieâ—e was the man witty and bold enough to aâ—tempt a zelous and a foolish undertaking and address'd himself with ignoble indeed but witty arts to perswade the King to leave what was dearer to Him then His Eyes It is true it was a Wave dash'd against a Rock and an Arrow shot against the Sun it could not reach him but the Bishop of Derry turn'd it alâ—o and made it to fall upon the shooters head for he made so ingenious so learned and so accute Reply to that book he so discover'd the Errors of the Roman Church retorted the Arguments stated the Questions demonstrated the Truth and sham'd their Procedures that nothing could be a greater argument of the Bishops Learning great Parts deep Judgment Quickness of Apprehension and Sincerity in the Catholick and Apostolick Faith or of the Follies and Prevarications of the Church of Rome He wrote no Apologies for himself though it were much to be wish'd that as Junius wrote his own Life or Moses his own story so we might have understood from himself how great things God had done for him and by him but all that he permitted to God and was silent in his own Defences Gloriosius enim est injuriam tacendo fugere quà m respondendo superare But when the Honour and Conscience of his King and the Interest of a true Religion was at stake the fire burn'd within him and at last he spake with his tongue he cried out like the son of Croesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Take heed and meddle not with the King His Person is too sacred and Religion too dear to Him to be assaulted by Vulgar hands In short he acquited himself in this affair with so much Truth and Piety Learning and Judgment that in those Papers his memory will last unto very late succeeding Generations But this most Reverend Prelate found a nobler adversary and a braver scene for his contention He found that the Roman Priests being wearied and baffled by the wise Discourses and pungent Arguments of the English Divines had studiously declined any more to dispute the particular Questions against us but fell at last upon a general Charge imputing to the Church of England the great crime of Schism and by this they thought they might with most probability deceive unwary and unskilful Readers for they saw the Schism and they saw we had left them and because they consider'd not the Causes they resolv'd to out-face us in the Charge But now it was that dignum nactus argumentum having an Argument fit to imploy his great abilities Consecrat hic praesul calamum calamÃque labores Ante
him and by the strengths and confidence of these thrusts us forward in a holy and wise Oeconomy and plainly declares that we must serve him by the measures of a new Love do him Honour by wise and material Glorifications be united to God by a new Nature and made alive by a new Birth and fulfil all Righteousness to be humble and meek as Christ to be merciful as our Heavenly Father is to be pure as God is pure to be partakers of the Divine Nature to be wholly renewed in the frame and temper of our mind to become people of a new heart a direct new Creation new Principles and a new Being to do better than all the world before us ever did to love God more perfectly to despise the world more generously to contend for the Faith more earnestly for all this is but a proper and a just consequent of the great Promises which our Blessed Law-giver came to publish and effect for all the world of Believers and Disciples The matter which is here required is certainly very great for it is to be more righteous than the Scribes and Pharisees more holy than the Doctors of the Law than the Leaders of the Synagogue than the wise Princes of the Sanhedrim more righteous than some that were Prophets and High Priests than some that kept the Ordinances of the Law without blame men that lay in Sackcloth and fasted much and prayed more and made Religion and the Study of the Law the work of their lives This was very much but Christians must do more Nunc te marmoreum pro tempore fecimus at tu Si foetura gregem suppleverit aureus esto They did well and we must do better their houses were Marble but our roofs must be gilded and fuller of Glory * But as the matter is very great so the necessity of it is the greatest in the world It must be so or it will be much worse unless it be thus we shall never see the glorious Face of God Here it concerns us to be wise and fearful for the matter is not a question of an Oaken Garland or a Circle of Bayes and a Yellow Ribband it is not a question of Money or Land nor of the vainer rewards of popular noises and the undiscerning Suffrages of the people who are contingent Judges of good and evil but it is the great stake of Life Eternal We cannot be Christians unless we be righteous by the new measures the Righteousness of the Kingdom is now the only way to enter into it for the Sentence is fixt and the Judgement is decretory and the Judge infallible and the Decree irreversible For I say unto you said Christ unless your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Here then we have two things to consider 1. What was the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees 2. How far that is to be exceeded by the Righteousness of Christians 1. Concerning the First I will not be so nice in the Observation of these words as to take notice that Christ does not name the Sadduces but the Scribes and Pharisees though there may be something in it the Sadduces were called Caraim from Cara to read for they thought it Religion to spend one third part of their day in reading their Scriptures whose fulness they so admired they would admit of no suppletory Traditions But the Pharisees were called Thannaim that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they added to the Word of God words of their own as the Church of Rome does at this day they and these fell into an equal fate while they taught far Doctrines the Commandments of men they prevaricated the righteousness of God What the Church of Rome to evil purposes hath done in this particular may be demonstrated in due time and place but what false and corrupt glosses under the specious title of the Tradition of their Fathers the Pharisees had introducedour Blessed Saviour reproves and are now to be represented as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that you may see that Righteousness beyond which all they must go that intend that Heaven should be their Journeys end 1. The Pharisees obeyed the Commandments in the Letter not in the Spirit They minded what God spake but not what he intended they were busie in the outward work of the hand but incurious of the affections and choice of the heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Justin Martyr to Tryphon the Jew Ye understand all things carnally that is they rested 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzen calls it in the outward work of Piety which not only Justin Martyr but St. Paul calls Carnality not meaning a carnal Appetite but a carnal Service Their error was plainly this they never distinguished Duties natural from Duties relative that is whether it were commanded for it self or in order to something that was better whether it were a principal Grace or an instrumental Action So God was served in the Letter they did not much inquire into his Purpose And therefore they were curious to wash their hands but cared not so much to purifie the hearts They would give Alms but hate him that received it they would go to the Temple but did not revere the Glory of God that dwelt there between the Cherubins they would fast but not mortify their Lusts they would say good Prayers but not labour for the Grace they prayed for This was just as if a man should run on his Masters errand and do no business when he came there They might easily have thought that by the Soul only a man approaches to God and draws the Body after it but that no washings or corporal Services could unite them and the Shechinah together no such thing could make them like to God who is the Prince of Spirits * They did as the Dunces in Pythagoras School who when their Master had said Fabis abstineto by which he intended they should not ambitiously seek for Magistracy they thought themselves good Pythagoreans if they did not eat Beans and they would be sure to put their Right foot first into the shooe and their Left foot into the water and supposed they had done enough though if they had not been Fools they would have understood their Masters meaning to have been that they should put more affections to labour and travel and less to their pleasure and recreation and so it was with the Pharisee For as the Chaldees taught their Morality by mystick words and the Aegyptians by Hieroglyphicks and the Greeks by Fables so did God by Rites and Ceremonies external leading them by the Hand to the Purities of the Heart and by the Services of the Body to the Obedience of the Spirit which because they would not understand they thought they had done enough in the observation of the Letter 2. In moral Duties where God express'd Himselfe more plainly they made no Commentary of kindness but
unless men were much better and as long as men live at the rate they do it will be to little purpose to talk of exceeding the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees but because it must be much better with us all or it will be very much worse with us at the latter end I shall leave complaining and go to the Rule and describe the necessary and unavoidable measures of the righteousness Evangelical without which we can never be saved 1. Therefore when it is said our Righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees let us first take notice by way of praecognition that it must at least be so much we must keep the Letter of the whole Moral Law we must do all that lies before us all that is in our hand and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to be religious the Grammarians derive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from reaching forth the hand the outward work must be done and it is not enough to say My heart is right but my hand went aside Prudentius saith that St. Peter wept so bitterly because he did not confess Christ openly whom he lov'd secretly Flevit negator denique Ex ore prolapsum nefas Cum mens maneret innocens Animusque servârit fidem A right heart alone will not do it or rather the heart is not right when the hand is wrong If a man strikes his Neighbor and says Am not I in jest It is folly and shame to him said Solomon For once for all Let us remember this that Christianity is the most profitable the most useful and the most bountiful institution in the whole world and the best definition I can give of it is this It is the Wisdom of God brought down among us to do good to men and therefore we must not do less than the Pharisees who did the outward work at least let us be sure to do all the work that is laid before us in the Commandments And it is strange that this should be needful to be press'd amongst Christians whose Religion requires so very much more But so it is upon a pretence that we must serve God with the mind Some are such fools as to think that it is enough to have a good meaning Iniquum perpol verbum est bene vult nisi qui bene facit And because we must serve God in the Spirit therefore they will not serve God with their Bodies and because they are called upon to have the power and the life of Godliness they abominate all external works as mere forms and because the true fast is to abstain from Sin therefore they will not abstain from meat and drink even when they are commanded which is just as if a Pharisee being taught the Circumcision of the heart should refuse to Circumcise his Flesh and as if a Christian being instructed in the Excellencies of Spiritual Communion should wholly neglect the Sacramental that is because the Soul is the life of man therefore it is fitting to die in a humour and lay aside the Body * This is a taking away the Subject of the Question for our iniquiry is How we should keep the Commandments how we are to do the work that lyes before us by what Principles with what Intention in what Degrees after what manner ut bonum bene fiat that the good thing be done well This therefore must be presupposed we must take care that even our Bodies bear a part in our Spiritual Services Our voice and tongue our hands and our Feet and our very bowels must be servants of God and do the work of the Commandments This being ever supposed our Question is how much more we must do and the first measure is this Whatsoever can be signified and ministred to by the Body the Heart and the Spirit of a man must be the principal Actor We must not give Alms without a charitable Soul nor suffer Martyrdom but in Love and in Obedience and when we say our Prayers we do but mispend our time unless our mind ascend up to God upon the wings of desire Desire is the life of prayer and if you indeed desire what you pray for you will also labour for what you desire and if you find it otherwise with your selves your coming to Church is but like the Pharisees going up to the Temple to pray If your heart be not present neither will God and then there is a found of men and women between a pair of dead walls from whence because neither God nor your Souls are present you must needs go home without a Blessing But this measure of Evangelical righteousness is of principal remark in all the rites and solemnities of Religion and intends to say this that Christian Religion is something that is not seen it is the hidden man of the heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is God that dwels within and true Christians are men who as the Chaldee Oracle said are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clothed with a great deal of mind And therefore those words of the Prophet Hosea Et loquar ad cor ejus I will speak unto their heart is a proverbial expression signifying to speak spiritual comforts and in the mystical sense signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to preach the Gospel where the Spirit is the Preacher and the Heart is the Disciple and the Sermon is of Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Our Service to God must not be in outward works and Scenes of Religion it must be something by which we become like to God the Divine Prerogative must extend beyond the outward man nay even beyond the mortification of Corporal vices the Spirit of God must go in trabis crassitudinem and mollify all our secret pride and ingenerate in us a true humility and a Christian meekness of Spirit and a Divine Charity For in the Gospel when God enjoyns any external Rite or Ceremony the outward work is alwayes the less principal For there is a bodily and a carnal part an outside and a Cabinet of Religion in Christianity it self When we are baptized the purpose of God is that we cleanse our selves from all pollution of the Flesh and Spirit and then we are indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clean all over And when we communicate the Commandment means that we should be made one Spirit with Christ and should live on him believing his Word praying for his Spirit supported with his Hope refreshed by his promises recreated by his Comforts and wholly and in all things conformable to his Life that is the true Communion The Sacraments are not made for Sinners until they do repent they are the food of our Souls but our Souls must be alive unto God or else they cannot eat It is good to confess our sins as St. James sayes and to open our wounds to the Ministers of Religion but they absolve none but such as are truly penitent Solemn Prayers and the Sacraments and the Assemblies
of the Faithful and fasting dayes and acts of external worship are the solemnities and rites of Religion but the Religion of a Christian is in the Heart and Spirit And this is that by which Clemens Alexandâ—inus defined the Righteousness of a Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the parts faculties that make up a man must make up our Religion but the heart is Domus principalis it is the Court of the great King and he is properly served with interior graces and moral Vertues with a humble and a good mind with a bountiful heart and a willing Soul and these will command the eye and give laws to the hand and make the shoulders stoop but anima cujusque est quisque a mans soul is the man and so is his Religion and so you are bound to understand it True it is God works in us his Graces by the Sacrament but we must dispose our selves to a reception of the Divine blessing by Moral instruments The Soul is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it must work together with God and the body works together with the soul But no external action can purifie the soul because its Nature and Operations being Spiritual it can no more be changed by a Ceremony or an external Solemnity than an Angel can be caressed with sweet Meats or a Mans belly can be filled with Musick or long Orations The sum is this No Christian does his Duty to God but he that serves him with all his heart And although it becomes comes us to fulfil all righteousnes even the external also yet that which makes us gracious in his Eyes is not the external it is the love of the heart and the real change of the mind and obedience of the spirit that 's the first great measure of the Righteousness Evangelical 2. The Righteousness Evangelical must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees by extension of our Obedience to things of the same signification Leges non ex verbis sed ex mente intelligendas sayes the Law There must be a Commentary of kindness in the understanding the Laws of Christ. We must understand all Gods meaning we must secure his service we must be far removed from the dangers of his displeasure And therefore our Rigteousness must be the purification and the perfection of the Spirit So that it will be nothing for us not to commit Adultery unless our Eyes and Hands be chast and the desires be clean A Christian must not look upon a woman to lust after her He must hate Sin in all dimensions and in all distance and in every angle of its reception A Christian must not sin and he must not be willing to sin if he durst He must not be lustful and therefore he must not feed high nor drink deep for these make provisions for lust and amongst Christians great eatings and drinkings are acts of uncleanness as well as of intemperance and whatever ministers to sin and is the way of it it partakes of its nature and its curse For it is remarkable that in good and evil the case is greatly different Mortification e. g. is a duty of Christianity but there is no Law concerning the Instruments of it We are not commanded to roll our selves on thorns as St. Benedict did or to burn our flesh like St. Martinian or to tumble in Snows with S. Francis or in pools of water with S Bernard A man may chew Aloes or ly upon the ground or wear sackcloth if he have a mind to it and if he finds it good in his circumstances and to his purposes of mortification but it may be he may do it alone by the Instrumentalities of Fear and Love and so the thing be done no special Instrument is under a command * But although the Instruments of vertue are free yet the Instruments and ministeries of vice are not Not only the sin is forbidden but all the wayes that lead to it The Instruments of vertue are of themselves indifferent that is not naturally but good only for their relation sake and in order to their end But the Instruments of vice are of themselves vitious they are part of the sin they have a share in the phantastick pleasure and they begin to estrange a mans heart from God and are directly in the prohibition For we are commanded to fly from temptation to pray against it to abstain from all appearances of evil to make a covenant with our eyes to pluck them out if there be need And if Christians do not understand the Commandments to this extension of signification they will be innocent only by the measures of humane laws but not by the righteousness of God 3. Of the same consideration it is also that we understand Christs Commandments to extend our Duty not only to what is named and what is not named of the same nature and design but that we abstain from all such things as are like to sins * Of this nature there are many All violences of Passion Irregularities in Gaming Prodigality of our time Undecency of action doing things unworthy of our Birth or our Profession aptness to go to Law Ambitus or a fierce prosecution even of honourable employments misconstruction of the words and actions of our brother easiness to believe evil of others willingness to report the evil which we hear curiosity of Dyet peevishness toward servants indiscreet and importune standing for place and all excess in ornaments for even this little instance is directly prohibited by the Christian and royal Law of Charity For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Paul the word is a word hard to be understood we render it well enough Charity vaunteth not it self and upon this Saint Basil says that an Ecclesiastick person and so every Christian in his proportion ought not to go in splendid and vain Ornaments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every thing that is not wisely useful or proportioned to the state of the Christian but ministers only to vanity is a part of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a vaunting which the Charity and the Grace of a Christian does not well endure * These things are like to sins they are of a suspicious nature and not easily to be reconcil'd to the righteousness Evangelical It is no wonder if Christianity be nice and curious it is the cleanness and the purification of the Soul and Christ intends to present his Church to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without spot or wrinkle or any such thing N. B. or any such thing If there be any irregularity that is less than a wrinkle the Evangelical righteousness does not allow it * These are such things which if men will stand to defend possibly a modest Reprover will be more ashamed than an impudent Offender * If I see a person apt to quarrel to take every thing in an ill sense to resent an error deeply to reprove it bitterly to remember it tenaciously to repeat it frequently to upbraid it
us and that we no longer abide in that state of slavery as to say The good that I would I do not but the evil that I would not that I do 3. In the next place we are to inquire in what degree this is to be effected for though in negatives properly there are no degrees yet unless there be some allays in this Doctrine it will not be so well and it may be your experiences will for ever confute my Arguments For who can say that he is clean from his sin said the Wiseman and as our Blessed Saviour said He that is innocent amongst you all let him throw the first stone at the sinner and spare not To this I answer in the words of S. Gregory All mans righteousness will be found to be unrighteous if God should severely enter into judgment but therefore even after our innocence we must pray for pardon ut quae succumbere discussa poterat ex judicis pietate convalescat that our innocence which in strictness of Divine judgment would be found spotted and stained by the mercy of our Saviour may be accepted S. Bernard expresses this well Nostra siqua est humilis justitia recta forsitan sed non pura Our humble righteousness is perhaps right in the eyes of God but not pure that is accepted by his mercy but it is such as dares not contend in judgment For as no man is so much a sinner but he sometimes speaks a good word or does some things not ill and yet that little good interrupts not that state of evil so it is amongst very good men from whom sometimes may pass something that is not commendable and yet their heart is so habitually right towards God that they will do nothing but I do not say which God in justice cannot but which in mercy he will not impute to eternal condemnation It was the case of David He was a man after Gods own heart nay it is said he was blameless save in the matter of Uriah and yet we know he numbred the people and God was angry with him and punished him for it but because he was a good man and served God heartily that other fault of his was imputed to him no further God set a fine upon his head for it but it was salvo contenemento the main stake was safe For concerning good men the question is not whether or no God could not in the rigour of justice blame their indiscretion or impute a foolish word or chide them for a hasty answer or a careless action for a less devout prayer or weak hands for a fearful heart or a trembling faith These are not the measures by which God judges his children for he knoweth whereof we are made and he remembers that we are but dust But the question is whether any man that is covetous or proud false to his trust or a Drunkard can at the same time be a child of God No certainly he cannot But then we know that God judges us by Jesus Christ that is with the allays of mercy with an eye of pardon with the sentences of a Father by the measures of a man and by analogy to all our unavoidable abatements God could enter with us into a more severe judgment but he would not and no justice tied him from exercising that mercy But according to the measures of the Gospel he will judge every man according to his works Now what these measures are is now the question To which I answer first in general and then more particularly 1. In general thus A Christians innocence is always to be measured by the plain lines and measures of the Commandments but are not to be taken into account by uncertain and fond opinions and the scruples of zealous and timorous persons My meaning is this Some men tell us that every natural inclination to a forbidden object is a sin which they that believe finding them to be natural do also confess that such sins are unavoidable But if these natural and first motions be sins then a man sins whether he resist them or resists them not whether he prevails or prevails not and there is no other difference but this he that fights not against but always yields to his desires sins greatest and he that never yields but fights always sins oftenest But then by this reckoning it will indeed be impossible to avoid millions of sins because the very doing of our duty does suppose a sin If God should impute such first desires to us as sins we were all very miserable but if he does not impute them let us trouble our selves no further about them but to take care that they never prevail upon us Thus men are taught that they never say their prayers but they commit a sin Indeed that is true but too often but yet it is possible for us by the Grace of God to please him in saying our prayers and to be accepted of him But indeed if God did proceed against us as we do against one another no man could abide innocent for so much as one hour But Gods judgement is otherwise He inquires if the heart be right if our labour be true if we love no sin if we use prudent and efficacious instruments to mortifie our sin if we go about our Religion as we go about the biggest concerns of our life if we be sincere and real in our actions and intentions For this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that God requires of us all this is that sinless state in which if God does not find us we shall never see his glorious face and if he does find us we shall certainly be saved by the blood of Jesus For in the style of Scripture to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the same thing to be sincere and to be without offence is all one Thus David spake heartily I am utterly purpos'd that my mouth shall not offend and thou shalt find no wickedness in me He that endeavours this and hopes this and does actions and uses means accordingly not being deceived by his own false heart nor abused by evil propositions this man will stand upright in the Congregations of the Just and though he cannot challenge Heaven by merit yet he shall receive it as a gift by promise and by grace Lex nos innocentes esse jubet non curiosos said Seneca For God takes no judgment of us by any measures but of the Commandment without and the heart and the conscience within but he never intended his Laws to be a snare to us or to entrap us with consequences and dark interpretations by large deductions and witty similitudes of faults but he requires of us a sincere heart and a hearty labour in the work of his Commandments he calls upon us to avoid all that which his Law plainly forbids and which our consciences do condemn This is the general measure The particulars are briefly these 1. Every Christian is bound to arrive at that state
pay him a better obedience when he forgives us what is past he intends we should sin no more when he offers us his graces he would have us to make use of them when he causes us to distrust our selves his meaning is we should rely upon him when he enables us to do what he commands us he commands us to do all that we can And therefore this Covenant of Faith and mercy is also a Covenant of holiness and the grace that pardons us does also purifie us for so saith the Apostle He that hath this hope purifies himself even as God is pure And when we are so then we are justified indeed this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the law of Faith and by works in this sense that is by the works of Faith by Faith working by love and producing fruits worthy of amendment of life we are justified before God And so I have done with the affirmative Proposition of my Text you see that a man is justified by works But there is more in it then this matter yet amounts to For S. James does not say we are justified by works and are not justified by Faith that had been irreconcileable with S. Paul but we are so justified by works that it is not by Faith alone it is Faith and works together that is it is by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the obedience of Faith by the works of Faith by the law of Faith by righteousness Evangelical by the conditions of the Gospel and the measures of Christ. I have many things to say in this particular but because I have but a little time left to say them in I will sum it all up in this Proposition That in the question of justification and salvation Faith and good works are no part of a distinction but members of one intire body Faith and good works together work the righteousness of God That is that I may speak plainly justifying faith contains in it obedience and if this be made good then the two Apostles are reconciled to each other and both of them to the necessity the indispensable necessity of a good life Now that justifying and saving Faith must be defined by something more than an act of understanding appears not only in this that S. Peter reckons Faith as distinctly from knowledge as he does from patience or strength or brotherly kindness saying Add to your faith vertue to vertue knowledge but in this also because an error in life and whatsoever is against holiness is against faith And therefore S. Paul reckons the lawless and the disobedient murders of Parents man-stealing and such things to be against sound doctrines for the doctrine of Faith is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the doctrine that is according to godliness And when S. Paul prayes against ungodly men he adds this reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for all men have not Faith meaning that wicked men are Infidels and Unbelievers and particularly he affirms of him that does not provide for his own that he hath denyed the Faith Now from hence it follows that faith is godliness because all wickedness is infidelity it is an Apostacy from the Faith Ille erit Ille nocens qui me tibi fecerat hostem he that sins against God he is the enemy to the Faith of Jesus Christ and therefore we deceive our selves if we place faith in the understanding only it is not that and it does not dwell there but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle the Mystery of Faith is kept no where it dwells no where but in a pure conscience For I consider that since all moral habits are best defined by their operations we can best understand what faith is by seeing what it does To this purpose hear S. Paul By faith Abel offered up to God a more excellent Sacrifice than Cain By faith Noah made an Ark. By faith Abraham left his Country and offered up his Son By faith Moses chose to suffer affliction and accounted the reproach of Christ greater than all the riches of Aegypt In short the children of God by faith subdued Kingdoms and wrought righteousness To work righteousness is as much the duty and work of faith as believing is So that now we may quickly make an end of this great inquiry whether a man is justified by Faith or by works for he is so by both if you take it alone faith does not justifie but take it in the aggregate sense as it is used in the question of Justification by S. Paul and then faith does not only justifie but it sanctifies too and then you need to inquire no further obedience is a part of the definition of faith as much as it is of Charity This is love saith S. John that we keep his Commandments And the very same is affirmed of Faith too by Bensirach He that believeth the Lord will keep his Commandments I have now don with all the Proposiâ—ions expressed and implyed in the Text give me leave to make some practical Considerations and so I shall dismiss you from this Attention The rise I take from the words of S. Epiphanius speaking in praise of the Apostolical and purest Ages of the Church There was at first no distinction of Sects and Opinions in the Church she knew no difference of men but good and bad there was no separation made but what was made by piety or impiety or sayes he which is all one by fidelity and infidelity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For Faith hath in it the Image of godliness engraven and infidelity hath the character of wickedness and prevarication A man was not then esteemed a Saint for disobeying his Bishop or an Apostle nor for misunderstanding the hard sayings of S. Paul about predestination to kick against the laudable customs of the Church was not then accounted a note of the godly party and to despise Government was but an ill mark and weak indication of being a good Christian. The Kingdom of God did not then consist in words but in power the power of godliness though now we are fallen into another method we have turned all Religion into Faith and our Faith is nothing but the productions of interest or disputing it is adhering to a party and a wrangling against all the world beside and when it is asked of what Religion he is of we understand the meaning to be what faction does he follow what are the articles of his Sect not what is the manner of his life and if men be zealous for their party and that interest then they are precious men though otherwise they be Covetous as the grave factious as Dathan Schismatical as Corah or proud as the falling Angels Alas these things will but deceive us the faith of a Christian cannnot consist in strifes about words and perverse disputings of men These things the Apostle calls prophane and vain Bablings and mark what he sayes of them these things will encrease 〈◊〉
they pretend Charity They will indeed force you to come in but it is in true Zeal for your Soul and if they do you violence it is no more then if they pull your Arme out of joynt when to save you from drowning they draw you out of a River and if you complain plain it is no more to be regarded then the out-cries of Children against their Rulers or sick men against Physicians But as to the thing it self the truth is it is better in Contemplation then in Practice for reckon all that is got by it when you come to handle it and it can never satisfie for the infinite disorders happening in the Government the scandal to Religion the secret dangers to publick Societies the growth of Heresie the nursing up of parties to a grandeur so considerable as to be able in their own time to change the Lawes and the Government So that if the Question be whether meer Opinions are to be persecuted it is certainly true they ought not But if it be considered how by Opinions men rifle the affaires of Kingdoms it is also as certain they ought not to be made publick and permitted And what is now to be done must Truth be for ever in the dark and the World for ever be divided and Societies disturbed and Governments weakned and our Spirits debauched with Error and the uncertain Opinions and the Pedantery of talking men Certainly there is a way to cure all this evil and the wise Governour of all the World hath not been wanting in so necessary a matter as to lead us into all Truth But the way hath not yet been hit upon and yet I have told you all the wayes of Man and his Imaginations in order to Truth and Peace and you see these will not do we can find no rest for the soles of our feet amidst all the waters of Contention and disputations and little artifices of divided Schools Every man is a lyar and his understanding is weak and his Propositions uncertain and his Opinions trifling and his Contrivances imperfect and neither Truth nor Peace does come from man I know I am in an Auditory of inquisitive persons whose businesse is to study for Truth that they may find it for themselves and teach it unto others I am in a School of Prophets and Prophets Sons who all ask Pilate's Question What is Truth You look for it in your Books and you tug hard for it in your Disputations and you derive it from the Cisterns of the Fathers and you enquire after the old wayes and sometimes are taken with new appearances and you rejoyce in false lights or are delighted with little umbrages and peep of Day But where is there a man or a Society of men that can be at rest in his enquiry and is sure he understands all the truths of God where is there a man but the more he studies and enquires still he discovers nothing so clearly as his own Ignorance This is a demonstration that we are not in the right way that we do not inquire wisely that our Method is not artificiall If men did fall upon the right way it were impossible so many learned men should be engaged in contrary parties and opinions We have examined all wayes but one all but God's way Let us having missed in all the other try this let us go to God for Truth for Truth comes from God only and his wayes are plain and his sayings are true and his promises Yea and Amen and if we miss the Truth it is because we will not find it for certain it is that all that Truth which God hath made necessarie he hath also made legible and plain and if we will open our eyes we shall see the Sun and if we will walk in the light we shall rejoyce in the light only let us withdraw the Curtains let us remove the impediments and the sin that doth so easily beset us that 's Gods way Every man must in his station do that portion of duty which God requires of him and then he shall be taught of God all that is fit for him to learn there is no other way for him but this The feare of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and a good understanding have all they that do thereafter And so said David of himself I have more understanding then my Teachers because I keep thy Commandements And this is the only way which Christ hath taught us if you ask What is truth you must not doe as Pilate did ask the Question and then go away from him that only can give you an answer for as God is the author of Truth so he is the teacher of it and the way to learn it is this of my Text For so saith our blessed Lord If any man will do his will he shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God or no. My Text is simple as Truth it self but greatly Comprehensive and contains a truth that alone will enable you to understand all Mysteries and to expound all Prophecies and to interpret all Scriptures and to search into all Secrets all I mean which concern our happinesse and our duty and it being an affirmative hypotheticall is plainly to be resolved into this Proposition The way to judge of Religion is by doing of our duty and Theology is rather a Divine life then a Divine knowledge In Heaven indeed we shall first see and then love but here on Earth we must first love and love will open our eyes as well as our hearts and we shall then see and perceive and understand In the handling of which Proposition I shall first represent to you that the certain causes of our Errors are nothing but direct sins nothing makes us Fools and Ignorants but living vicious lives and then I shall proceed to the direct demonstration of the Article in question that Holinesse is the only way of truth and understanding 1. No man understands the Word of God as it ought to be understood unlesse he layes aside all affections to Sin of which because we have taken very little care the product hath been that we have had very little wisdom and very little knowledge in the wayes of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Aristotle Wickedness does corrupt a mans reasoning it gives him false principles and evil measures of things the sweet Wine that Ulysses gave to the Cyclops put his eye out and a man that hath contracted evil affections and made a League with sin sees only by those measures A Covetous man understands nothing to be good that is not profitable and a Voluptuous man likes your reasoning well enough if you discourse of Bonum jucundum the pleasures of the sense the ravishments of lust the noises and inadvertencies the mirth and songs of merry Company But if you talk to him of the melancholy Lectures of the Cross the content of Resignation the peace of Meeknesse and the Joyes of the holy Ghost
and being convinced of the truth does also apprehend the necessity and obeys the precept and delights in the discovery and layes his hand upon his heart and reduces the notices of things to the practice of duty he who dares trust his proposition and drives it on to the utmost most issue resolving to goe after it whithersoever it can invite him this Man walks in the spirit at least thus far he is gone towards it his Understanding is brought in obsequium Christi into the obedience of Christ. This is a loving God with all our mind and whatever goes less then this is but Memory and not Understanding or else such notice of things by which a man is neither the wiser nor the better 3. Sometimes God gives to his choicest his most elect and precious Servants a knowledge even of secret things which he communicates not to others We find it greatly remark'd in the case of Abraham Gen. 18.17 And the Lord said Shall I hide from Abraham that thing that I do Why not from Abraham God tells us v. 19. For I know him that he will command his Children and his houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord to doe justice and judgement And though this be irregular and infrequent yet it is a reward of their piety and the proper increase also of the spirituall man We find this spoken by God to Daniel and promised to be the lot of the righteous man in the dayes of the Messias Many shall be purified and made white and tryed but the wicked shall do wickedly and what then None of the wicked shall understand but the wise shall understand Where besides that the wise man and the wicked are opposed plainly signifying that the wicked man is a Fool and an Ignorant it is plainly said that None of the wicked shall understand the wisdome and mysteriousnesse of the Kingdome of the Messias 4. A good life is the best way to understand Wisdome and Religion because by the experiences and relishes of Religion there is conveyed to them such a sweetnesse to which all wicked men are strangers there is in the things of God to them which practice them a deliciousnesse that makes us love them and that love admits us into Gods Cabinet and strangely clarifies the understanding by the purification of the heart For when our reason is raised up by the spirit of Christ it is turned quickly into experience when our Faith relyes upon the principles of Christ it is changed into vision so long as we know God only in the wayes of man by contentious Learning by arguing and dispute we see nothing but the shadow of him and in that shadow we meet with many dark appearances little certainty and much conjecture But when we know him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the eyes of holinesse and the intuition of gracious experiences with a quiet spirit and the peace of Enjoyment then we shall heare what we never heard and see what our eyes never saw then the mysteries of Godlinesse shall be opened unto us and cleare as the windows of the morning And this is rarely well expressed by the Apostle If we stand up from the dead and awake from sleep then Christ shall give us light For although the Scriptures themselves are written by the Spirit of God yet they are written within and without and besides the light that shines upon the face of them unlesse there be a light shining within our hearts unfolding the leaves and interpreting the mysterious sense of the spirit convincing our Consciences and preaching to our hearts to look for Christ in the leaves of the Gospell is to look for the living amongst the dead There is a life in them but that life is according to St. Paul's expression hid with Christ in God and unlesse the spirit of God be the Promo-condus we shall never draw it forth Humane Learning brings excellent ministeries towards this it is admirably usefull for the reproof of Heresies for the detection of Fallacies for the Letter of the Scripture for Collateral testimonies for exterior advantages but there is something beyond this that humane Learning without the addition of Divine can never teach Moses was learned in all the learning of the Egyptians and the holy men of God contemplated the glories of God in the admirable order motion and influences of the Heaven but besides all this they were taught of God something far beyond these prettinesses Pythagoras read Moses's Books and so did Plato and yet they became not Proselytes of the Religion though they were learned Scholars of such a Master The reason is because that which they drew forth from thence was not the life and secret of it Tradidit arcano quodcunque Volumine Moses There is a secret in these Books which few men none but the Godly did understand and though much of this secret is made manifest in the Gospel yet even here also there is a Letter and there is a Spirit still there is a reserve for Gods secret ones even all those deep mysteries which the old Testament covered in Figures and stories and names and prophesies and which Christ hath and by his Spirit will yet reveale more plainly to all that will understand them by their proper measures For although the Gospel is infinitely more legible and plain then the obscurer Leaves of the Law yet there is a seale upon them also which Seale no man shall open hut he that is worthy We may understand something of it by the three Children of the Captivity they were all skil'd in all the wisdom of the Chaldees and so was Daniel but there was something beyond that in him the wisdom of the most high God was in him and that taught him a learning beyond his learning In all Scripture there is a spirituall sense a spirituall Cabala which as it tends directly to holiness so it is best and truest understood by the sons of the Spirit who love God and therefore know him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every thing is best known by its own similitudes and analogies But I must take some other time to speak fully of these things I have but one thing more to say and then I shall make my Applications of this Doctrine and so conclude 5. Lastly there is a sort of Gods deare Servants who walk in perfectnesse who perfect holinesse in the feare of God and they have a degree of Clarity and divine knowledge more then we can discourse of and more certain then the Demonstrations of Geometry brighter then the Sun and indeficient as the light of Heaven This is called by the Apostle the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ is this brightnesse of God manifested in the hearts of his dearest servants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But I shall say no more of this at this time for this is to be felt and not to be talked of and they that never touched it with their
season for it 2. Holinesse is not only an advantage to the learning all wisdom and holinesse but for the discerning that which is wise and holy from what is trifling and uselesse and contentious and to one of these heads all Questions will return and therefore in all from Holinesse we have the best Instructions And this brings me to the next Particle of the generall Consideration For that which we are taught by the holy Spirit of God this new nature this vital principle within us it is that which is worth our learning not vaine and empty idle and insignificant notions in which when you have laboured till your eyes are fixed in their Orbes and your flesh unfixed from its bones you are no better and no wiser If the Spirit of God be your Teacher he will teach you such truths as will make you know and love God and become like to him and enjoy him for ever by passing from similitude to union and eternal fruition But what are you the better if any man should pretend to teach you whether every Angel makes a species and what is the individuation of the Soul in the state of separation what are you the wiser if you should study and find out what place Adam should for ever have lived in if he had not fallen and what is any man the more learned if he heares the disputes whether Adam should have multiplied Children in the state of Innocence and what would have been the event of things if one Child had been born before his Fathers sin Too many Scholars have lived upon Air and empty notions for many ages past and troubled themselves with tying and untying Knots like Hypochondriacs in a fit of Melancholy thinking of nothing and troubling themselves with nothing and falling out about nothings and being very wise and very learned in things that are not and work not and were never planted in Paradise by the finger of God Mens notions are too often like the Mules begotten by aequivocall and unnaturall Generations but they make no species they are begotten but they can beget nothing they are the effects of long study but they can do no good when they are produced they are not that which Solomon calls viam intelligentiae the way of understanding If the Spirit of God be our Teacher we shall learn to avoid evil and to do good to be wise and to be holy to be profitable and carefull and they that walk in this way shall find more peace in their Consciences more skill in the Scriptures more satisfaction in their doubts then can be obtain'd by all the polemical and impertinent disputations of the world And if the holy spirit can teach us how vain a thing it is to do foolish things he also will teach us how vain a thing it is to trouble the world with foolish Questions to disturb the Church for interest or pride to resist Government in things indifferent to spend the peoples zeale in things unprofitable to make Religion to consist in outsides and opposition to circumstances and trifling regards No no the Man that is wise he that is conducted by the Spirit of God knows better in what Christs Kingdom does consist then to throw away his time and interest and peace and safety for what for Religion no for the body of Religion not so much for the garment of the body of Religion no not for so much but for the Fringes of the garment of the Body of Religion for such and no better are the disputes that trouble our discontented Brethren they are things or rather Circumstances and manners of things which the Soul and spirit is not at all concerned 3. Holinesse of life is the best way of finding out truth and understanding not only as a Naturall medium nor only as a prudent medium but as a means by way of Divine blessing He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him Here we have a promise for it and upon that we may rely The old man that confuted the Arian Priest by a plain recitall of his Creed found a mighty power of God effecting his own Work by a strange manner and by a very plain instrument it wrought a divine blessing just as Sacraments use to doe and this Lightning sometimes comes in a strange manner as a peculiar blessing to good men For God kept the secrets of his Kingdom from the wise Heathens and the learned Jewes revealing them to Babes not because they had less learning but because they had more love they were children and Babes in Malice they loved Christ and so he became to them a light and a glory St. Paul had more learning then they all and Moses was instructed in all the Learning of the Egyptians yet because he was the meekest man upon Earth he was also the wisest and to his humane Learning in which he was excellent he had a divine light and excellent wisdome superadded to him by way of spiritual blessings And St. Paul though he went very far to the knowledge of many great and excellent truths by the force of humane learning yet he was far short of perfective truth and true wisdom till he learned a new lesson in a new School at the feet of one greater then his Gamaliel his learning grew much greater his notions brighter his skill deeper by the love of Christ and his desires his passionate desires after Jesus The force and use of humane learning and of this Divine learning I am now speaking of are both well expressed by the Prophet Isaiah 29.11 12. And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a Book that is sealed which men deliver to one that is learned saying Read this I pray thee and he saith I cannot for it is seal'd And the Book is delivered to him that is not learned saying Read this I pray thee and he saith I am not learned He that is no learned man who is not bred up in the Schools of the Prophets cannot read Gods Book for want of learning For humane Learning is the gate and first entrance of Divine vision not the only one indeed but the common gate But beyond this there must be another learning for he that is learned bring the Book to him and you are not much the better as to the secret part of it if the Book be sealed if his eyes be closed if his heart be not opened if God does not speak to him in the secret way of discipline Humane learning is an excellent Foundation but the top-stone is laid by Love and Conformity to the will of God For we may further observe that blindnesse errour and Ignorance are the punishments which God sends upon wicked and ungodly men Etiamsi propter nostrae intelligentiae tarditatem vitae demeritum veritas nondum se apertissime
their souls our Primate had so great a Veneration to his memory that he purpos'd if he had liv'd to have restor'd his Monument in Dundalke which Time or Impiety or Unthankfulness had either omitted or destroyed So great a lover he was of all true and inherent worth that he lov'd it in the very memory of the dead and to have such great Examples transmitted to the intuition and imitation of posterity At his coming to the Primacy he knew he should at first espy little besides the Ruines of Discipline a Harvest of Thorns and Heresies prevailing in the hearts of the People the Churches possess'd by Wolves and Intruders Mens hearts greatly estranged from true Religion and therefore he set himself to weed the fields of the Church he treated the Adversaries sometimes sweetly sometimes he confuted them learnedly sometimes he rebuk'd them sharply He visited his Charges diligently and in his own person not by Proxies and instrumental Deputations Quaerens non nostra sed nos quae sunt Jesu Christi he design'd nothing that we knew of but the Redintegration of Religion the Honour of God and the King the Restoring of collapsed Discipline and the Renovation of Faith and the Service of God in the Churches And still he was indefatigable and even as the last scene of his life intended to undertake a a Regal Visitation Quid enim vultis me otiosum à Domino comprehendi said one he was not willing that God should take him unimployed But good man he felt his Tabernacle ready to fall in pieces and could go no further for God would have no more work done by that hand he therefore espying this put his house in order and had lately visited his Diocese and done what he then could to put his Charge in order for he had a good while since receiv'd the sentence of death within himself and knew he was shortly to render an account of his stewardship he therefore upon a brisk alarm of death which God sent him the last January made his Will in which besides the prudence and presence of spirit manifested in making just and wise settlement of his Estate and provisions for his Descendants at midnight and in the trouble of his sickness and circumstances of addressing death still kept a special sentiment and made confession of Gods admirable mercies and gave thanks that God had permitted him to live to see the blessed Restauration of His Majesty and the Church of England confess'd his Faith to be the same as ever gave praises to God that he was born and bred up in this Religion and prayed to God and hop'd he should die in the Communion of this Church which he declar'd to be the most pure and Apostolical Church in the whole world He prayed to God to pardon his frailties and infirmities relied upon the mercies of God and the merits of Jesus Christ and with a singular sweetness resign'd up his soul into the hands of his Redeemer But God who is the great Choragus and Master of the Scenes of Life and Death was not pleas'd then to draw the Curtains there was an Epilogue to his Life yet to be acted and spoken He return'd to actions and life and went on in the methods of the same procedure as before was desirous still to establish the affairs of the Church complain'd of some disorders which he purpos'd to redress girt himself to the work but though his spirit was willing yet his flesh was weak and as the Apostles in the Vespers of Christs Passion so he in the Eve of his own Dissolution was heavy not to sleep but heavy unto death and look'd for the last warning which seiz'd on him in the midst of business and though it was sudden yet it could not be unexpected or unprovided by surprize and therefore could be no other then that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Augustus us'd to wish unto himself a civil and well-natur'd death without the amazement of troublesom circumstances or the great cracks of a falling house or the convulsions of impatience Seneca tells that Bassus Aufidius was wont to say Sperare se nullum dolorem esse in illo extremo anhelitu si tamen esset habere aliquantum in ipsa brevitate solatii He hop'd that the pains of the last Dissolution were little or none or if they were it was full of comfort that they could be but short It happened so to this excellent Man his Passive Fortitude had been abundantly tried before and therefore there was the less need of it now his active Graces had been abundantly demonstrated by the great and good things he did therefore his last scene was not so laborious but God call'd him away something after the manner of Moses which the Jews express by Osculum oris Dei The Kiss of Gods mouth that is a death indeed foresignified but gentle and serene and without temptation To summe up all He was a wise Prelate a learned Doctor a just Man a true Friend a great Benefactour to others a thankful Beneficiary where he was oblig'd himself He was a faithful Servant to his Masters a Loyal Subjest to the King a zelous Assertor of his Religion against Popery on one side and Fanaticism on the other The practice of his Religion was not so much in Forms and exteriour Ministries though he was a great observer of all the publick Rites and Ministries of the Church as it was in doing good for others He was like Myson whom the Scythian Anarchasis so greatly prais'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he govern'd his family well he gave to all their due of maintenance and duty he did great benefit to mankind he had the fate of the Apostle S. Paul he pass'd through evil report and good report as a deceiver and yet true He was a man of great business and great resort Semper aliquis in Cydonis domo as the Corinthian said There was alwayes somebody in Cydon's house He was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he divided his life into labour and his book he took care of his Churches when he was alive and even after his death having left 500 l. for the Repair of his Cathedral of Armagh and S. Peters Church in Drogheda He was an excellent Scholar and rarely well accomplish'd first instructed to great excellency by natural parts and then consummated by study and experience Melanchthon was us'd to say that himself was a Logician Pomeranus a Grammarian Justus Jonas an Orator but that Luther was all these It was greatly true of him that the single perfections which make many men eminent were united in this Primate and maâ—e him illustrious At at Quintilium perpetuus sopor Urget cui pudor justitiae soror Incorrupta fides nudaque veritas Quando ullum invenient parem It will be hard to find his Equal in all things Fortasse tanquam Phoenix anno quingentesimo nascitur that I may use the words of Seneca nec est mirum ex intervallo
is hard to miss both Let every Preacher in his Parish take care to explicate to the people the Mysteries of the great Festivals as of Christmas Easter Ascension day Whitsunday Trinity Sunday the Annuntiation of the blessed Virgin Mary because these Feasts containing in them the great Fundamentals of our Faith will with most advantage convey the mysteries to the people and fix them in their memories by the solemnity and circumstances of the day In all your Sermons and Discourses speak nothing of God but what is honourable and glorious and impute not to him such things the consequents of which a wise and good man will not own never suppose him to be author of sin or the procurer of our damnation For God cannot be tempted neither tempteth he any man God is true and every man a lyar Let no Preacher compare one Ordinance with another as Prayer with Preaching to the dispaparagement of either but use both in their proper seasons and according to appointed Order Let no man preach for the praise of men but if you meet it instantly watch and stand upon your guard and pray against your own vanity and by an express act of acknowledgement and adoration return the praise to God Remember that Herod was for the omission of this smitten by an Angel and do thou tremble searing lest the judgement of God be otherwise than the sentence of the people V. Rules and Advices concerning Catechisme EVery Minister is bound upon every Lords day before Evening Prayer to instruct all young people in the Creed the Lords Prayer the Ten Commandements and the Doctrine of the Sacraments as they are set down and explicated in the Church Catechism Let a Bell be tolled when the Catechising is to begin that all who desire it may be present but let all the more ignorant and uninstructed part of the people whether they be old or young be requir'd to be present that no person in your Parishes be ignorant in the foundations of Religion ever remembring that if in these things they be unskilful whatever is taught besides is like a house built upon the sand Let every Minister teach his people the use practise methods and benefits of meditation or mental prayer Let them draw out for them helps and rules for their assistance in it and furnish them with materials concerning the life and death of the ever blessed Jesus the greatness of God our own meanness the dreadful sound of the last Trumpet the infinite event of the two last sentences at doomsday let them be taught to consider what they have been what they are and what they shall be and above all things what are the issues of eternity glories never to cease pains never to be ended Let every Minister exhort his people to a frequent confession of their sins and a declaration of the state of their Souls to a conversation with their Minister in spiritual things to an enquiry concerning all the parts of their duty for by preaching and catechising and private entercourse all the needs of Souls can best be serv'd but by preaching alone they cannot Let the people be exhorted to keep fasting days and the feasts of the Church according to their respective capacities so it be done without burthen to them and without becoming a snare that is that upon the account of Religion and holy desires to please God they spend some time in Religion besides the Lords-day but be very careful that the Lords-day be kept Religiously according to the severest measures of the Church and the commands of Authority ever remembring that as they give but little Testimony of Repentance and Mortification who never fast so they give but small evidence of their joy in God and Religion who are unwilling solemnly to partake of the Publick and Religious Joys of the Christian Church Let every Minister be diligent in exhorting all Parents and Masters to send their Children and Servants to the Bishop at the Visitation or other solemn times of his coming to them that they may be confirm'd And let him also take care that all young persons may by understanding the Principles of Religion their vow of Baptism the excellency of Christian Religion the necessity and advantages of it and of living according to it be fitted and disposed and accordingly by them presented to the Bishop that he may pray over them and invocate the holy Spirit and minister the holy Rite of Confirmation VI. Rules and Advices concerning the Visitation of the Sick EVery Minister ought to be careful in visiting all the Sick and Afflicted persons of his Parish ever remembring that as the Priests lips are to preserve knowledge so it is his duty to minister a word of comfort in the time of need A Minister must not stay till he be sent for but of his own accord and care to go to them to examine them to exhort them to perfect their repentance to strengthen their faith to encourage their patience to perswade them to resignation to the renewing of their holy vows to the love of God to be reconcil'd to their neighbours to make restitution and amends to confess their sins to settle their estate to provide for their charges to do acts of piety and charity and above all things that they take care they do not sin towards the â—nd of their lives For if repentance on our death-bed seem so very late for the sins of our life what time shall be left to repent us of the sins we commit on our death-bed When you comfort the afflicted endeavour to bring them to the true love of God for he that serves God for Gods sake it is almost impossible he should be oppressed with sorrow In answering the cases of conscience of the sick or afflicted people consider not who asks but what he asks and consult in your answers more with the estate of his soul than the conveniency of his estate for no flattery is so fatal as that of the Physician or the Divine If the sick person enquires concerning the final estate of his soul he is to be reprov'd rather than answer'd only he is to be called upon to finish his duty to do all the good he can in that season to pray for pardon and acceptance but you have nothing to do to meddle with passing final sentences neither cast him down in despair nor raise him up to vain and unreasonable confidences But take care that he be not carelesly dismiss'd In order to these and many other good purposes every Minister ought frequently to converse with his Parishioners to go to their houses but alwayes publickly with witness and with prudence lest what is charitably intended be scandalously reported and in all your conversation be sure to give good example and upon all occasions to give good counsel VII Of ministring the Sacraments publick Prayers and other duties of Ministers EVery Minster is oblig'd publickly or privately to read the Common Prayers every day in the week at